Hello and welcome again to 2008 – the half year in review! Today, I’d like to take a look at a place I spent almost four years, and the second part of the major War Games at A1E’s Vengeance, Empire Pro Wrestling.
Firstly, I have to congratulate Rocko Daymon and Troy Douglas on winning the top two titles respectively. Troy Douglas had a very nice series with Sergeant before winning the title at Black Dawn. It made a lot of sense to put Troy into the IC title scene, as the main event scene was INCREDIBLY heavy – having him in the triple threat when Brown finally lost the title meant that the new champion (Sergeant) had a great feud to head into. Troy’s performances on the cards have really impressed me, especially after his last run in EPW ended kinda disappointingly after an inferno match against Issac Byrnes/John Doe.
But, as Empire Pro has often had, the mid-card is amazingly strong. You’ve got Larry Tact, Beast (I’d definitely pay to see him and Troy go at it for the IC title), Stalker, Ice Tre, Shawn Hart, and a lot of other people who’d make excellent challengers and possible champions at that level whilst the main event scene readjusts itself.
Break-out star of the half year though, without a doubt, is Nakita Dahaka. I’ve always been a fan of this character – she’s something different, something you don’t usually see; a well written, Gothic type. One of my major gripes for a long time has been how low down the card she’s been – her feud with Frankie Scott last year was spectacular and showed how a lower-card feud could be done without a title being around, and her alliance with Sean Stevens is going to be the push she needs to propel herself up the card. I’ve always felt she was just a little unfortunate – for a while, there were people no-showing fairly often, but never against her. I didn’t like her series with Olvir, but with this new direction, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.
The tag division’s at another cross-roads, with the Kings of the Cage tournament ongoing to name challengers to The Forsaken. I’m gonna reserve judgement, but once the tournament’s done, don’t be surprised if you get three or four teams stepping up in quick succession. Hopefully, most of the teams from the tournament will stick together once it’s done.
Storyline of the year, I’ve already touched on, is the Dahaka/Stalker/Stevens team. HUGE props go to this trio for coming together the way they did, and telling the story in RPs so effectively. I did not see these three getting together – especially with Dahaka in such a prime position. I don’t think they even need to add another member to The Fallen for a very long time, as each of these three can run great feuds up and down the card.
I must admit, I was disappointed by the Stalker/Daymon/Stevens saga. It seemed to really take over the cards, and a lot of the segments seemed overly nasty, especially the Stevens/Daymon ones. I’ve never been a fan of stories which get nasty quickly, and I think, honestly, it would’ve made more sense to hold back on it for a while. I wasn’t at all surprised, once Stevens and Daymon started interacting, that JA lost the number one contendership. It seemed really unfair to Holzerman IMO – he won the triple threat, then there was a storyline with the #1 contendership switching around, which made the PPV match seem irrelevant. I had been looking forward to seeing JA and Stevens go at it, with Rocko finishing with Stalker, but alas. Like I said a moment ago too, I think the Stevens/Daymon stuff was just too nasty. I can understand the idea – to show a deep hatred between the two, but I think that could’ve been built a lot slower, little interactions for the first PPV cycle, then this kind of nasty (especially the Stevens/Caitlyn bits) once things had been allowed to heat up. It’s pretty similar, actually, to the aforementioned Troy Douglas/Issac Byrnes storyline – that had a lot of potential but was rushed.
So, what can we look forward to? The Rocko Daymon/Sean Stevens saga finally seems to be getting interesting – the intensity is at a point I think it now deserves. The IC scene’s looking good, with Douglas and Tact the most obvious pairing. I’d like to see Beast and Craig Miles go at it on the mid-card, and the tag team division, once it’s settled down, should be interesting – The Forsaken look pretty unbeatable, but the Second Coming and The Fallen are both really strong. I think Kin Hiroshi and JA should definitely be staying around the main event, and, hopefully, the World Title scene can settle down a little and be about the title, rather than the soap-opera.
Then again, I really don’t like soap-opera, lol.
Well, that’s all for EPW for this half. Next time, I’ll be taking a look at New Frontier Wrestling. Until then, stay happy :)
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3 comments:
The Stevens/Daymon stuff was built up over an eight year span, without us really knowing that we'd get to this point. Any longer, and the two characters would be in wheel chairs. I understand that you think that it got nasty quickly, but in all honesty, it JUST got that way. And, I'd like to know your definition of nasty, because in my mind, we barely even flirted with nasty.
Furthermore, their most recent feud started two pay per views ago, and numerous cards in between, culminating at the biggest show of the year for the fed. Add in the RPs, and the time that it takes us to get a card out, it was almost 8 months long.
I don't think anything was done too quickly, and I personally think we kept things true to the characters.
I do, however, understand it not being everyone's cup of tea. But, to be completley honest? For quite a while, it seemed like the only thing that seemed to be anybody's cup of tea in EPW was Karl Brown and Lindsay Troy winning.
And, I'm cool with that.
I'm also cool with people not liking change. But, people also need to understand and respect the fact that change still means that someone sat in front of a computer for God knows how long, writing their tails off, to tell a story. And, just because it's not the norm, doesn't mean it's not as good. And, if someone doesn't take the time to read the entire backstory, or inquire about it? I don't feel bad about them not getting it.
Thanks for the feedback :)
For the "nasty" bits, there were four parts which I actually found very upsetting to read - Aggression 32, where Caitlyn tasered Stevens, and three of the segments on Aggression 33 (Rocko 'mugging' his wife, locking her in the boot of the car, and Stevens appearing in the Daymon hotel room). On the fourth of those, I stopped reading because it seemed like it was going to descend almost into a rape scene.
I know there was a lot of history between Daymon and Stevens which could be used to explain why there was that animosity - however, the fact it was 8 years in the making is complete news to me. Having only read Stevens in EPW, it seemed that there wasn't the history which would lead to him being tasered, or him breaking and entering the Daymon hotel room.
That's just a personal thing, though. I've never liked things which turn like that for reasons which aren't known to me. I've always been an advocate of not carrying on a feud from one fed into another, since you're assuming the audience knows all the backstory - obviously, you can still feud with someone you've feuded with before, but I really don't think it's wise to present it as a continuation if you're working in front of a completely different audience.
With the pace thing, I've read back over the cards, and it still feels to me as if it came out of nowhere starting at Aggression 32. I still think it would've made sense if it'd been dealt with differently, but each person has their own take on things - I like things being a little slower if you're building towards a big epic story and having some of the segments like the aforementioned tasering, breaking and entering, etc.
I did think what I read was well written. But it wasn't for me. The taser, the breaking and entering, the Rocko-kidnapping-Caitlyn-for-her-own-protection... I didn't like it.
I am interested to see where things go from here, now being on the outside of the fed.
Karl, maybe you should have read the roleplays for those shows too. It was made very clear the history between the two as they built that story up, and roleplay is most definitely a part of fed continuity.
If you don't read the roleplay along with the whole show, you can hardly complain about presentation of a feud.
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